AUTHOR GUIDE

The complete details of our publishing process can be found in this guide. The full text is available here. You can browse the chapters and sections using the menu on your right (or below, for mobile devices).

PROFILE

Please note: We take data protection and privacy very seriously, and your personal profile details such as residential address, telephone number and email are visible only to yourself and JHP staff.

In the top blue menu bar you will find your Profile. You can change this at any time, and the changes will feed through to the relevant boxes on the Book pages and, when it is published, the website.

Keep it short, sharp and relevant but don’t forget to include key points that your publicist can use when exchanging information with book reviewers and the press.

Alongside your telephone number, please also provide your Skype address if you are happy to use this form of communication in interviews.

Include any qualifications, books you have written, your level of expertise, anything that makes you STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD. Do mention any significant newspapers/magazines to which you contribute regularly.

Important: In the Previous Books section please include 13-digit ISBNs (starting 978) as well as titles.

Do include your website and any YouTube videos, blogs, Facebook, Twitter etc. in the relevant fields. All these will feed through to your author page on the website.

Do update it, especially if your website or Facebook/Twitter handles change. It is important that we have the correct links when directing people to your website and/or social media pages. If this is incorrect, it can a.) look unprofessional to prospective reviewers/press and b.) take a publicist’s time away from publicising the book as they are busy updating your profile.

Do not bore with detail. You are selling yourself, so talk about things in a style that helps you to sound plausible and interesting in the marketplace. REMEMBER your key audience when doing so.

Write it in the third person, e.g. “Peter Field is a leading military historian…”

Do not write about your family, pets or holidays, but do say where you live (e.g. Tulsa, Oklahoma). Shops always want to know, and chain stores may order for stores based around your location.

If you are publishing several titles with us, we cannot tailor the author biography for different books. The information here feeds through to the website, and the website is not intelligent enough to match different author bio/details with different titles. If someone in the media asks for your biography, we cannot get into conversations about "which one do you want", so the bio has to suit all your titles.

Do check out the user profile help video . It explains what an RSS feed is and demonstrates how to update all those social-media fields.

Here's an example of what we're looking for:

Long (this links to the website, any changes you make at any time after the book is published will feed through automatically):

Emma Restall Orr (aka Bobcat) is one of the best-known Druids worldwide. She worked for the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids, was Joint Chief of the British Druid Order for nearly ten years, and in 2002 created the international Druid Network. She is a practising priest and teacher, celebrated for her uncompromising views on ethics, environmentalism and personal responsibility. She regularly lectures at universities and within the Pagan community, and works as a media spokesperson for Druidry. Listen to Emma's answers to BBC's The Big Questions: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00kc2l1/The_Big_Questions_Series_2_Episode_16/

Short (this will used as the basis for the back-cover copy, sales information, newsletters):

Emma Restall Orr was Joint Chief of the British Druid Order, and created the international Druid Network. She is a priest, teacher, philosopher and poet and regularly broadcasts on national media.

Further notes

Street address: We need this to send you the free copies of your book as agreed in your contract, and any you might want to buy, and to bring your book to the attention of booksellers and media in your region.

Photo: Add it to your Profile. We don’t usually use photos in the book itself, but are often asked for one by magazines etc., and it appears on the website. How to upload your photo:

Save your picture on your home computer (an easy place to save it is on your desktop). Please make sure that the filename does not include special characters such as / ! " etc.

Go to your Profile and click on the “Browse” button next to “Author Photo,” and a “Choose File” panel should appear on your screen.

Click on the “Look In” dropdown menu at the top of the panel and select the folder where your picture is saved (e.g. “Desktop”).

Click on the relevant file, and the name of the file should appear in the “Filename” box at the bottom of the panel.

Click on “Open” next to the filename box.

A timer will appear on your screen as the database loads your file. Once loaded you should be able to “View” or “Delete” your picture.

Photos being uploaded should ideally be no more than 20KB in size. If it exceeds 1MB it may not upload to the website, or it may display a distorted image. If you have a photo on your PC, then you will also have a software program that can edit it. The easiest way to edit a photo is to resize, and again most photo software will ask you if you want to email the photo, or use it online, and will automatically resize to a manageable KB for all online/email use.

Photos are important – in social media, it's the first impression, and it counts.

Use a white background, or a neutral one, and it should be just you in the picture.

If your photo has been professionally taken, and the photographer needs a credit, can you ask him/her to embed the credit in the photo. Photos travel through to the website, get emailed to magazines, overseas publishers etc., and we do not have the facility to send a credit separately.

You can change your photo at any time, as with any other copy in your Profile, and it will travel through to the website.

It is not necessary for your picture to be taken by a professional, but we do reserve the right not to include it if it looks too amateurish.